Increasing interest is being focused on avoiding contact with body fluids having communicable agents such as the AIDS virus and the like. Individuals such as emergency paramedics, police, airline attendants, general medical personnel, and others engaged in handling and moving persons have, with increasing frequency, refused to touch individuals believed to have such communicable agents. Haphazard methods for moving individuals, such as placing a person on a blanket and having individuals lift or drag the blanket at the corners, have resulted in further endangerment to both the mover and movee.
Further, moving a person incapable of self movement or restricted to limited movement by reasons such as physical or mental disability, age, disease, injury, and the like has presented extreme difficulties for individuals with insufficient strength or leveraging ability. A common example is the necessity of inserting a chest board (an essentially rigid board that aids in insulating a patient from a supporting surface and provides a firm platform on which to perform CPR or similar procedures to the wearer or patient's exposed chest area) between a patient's back and an underlying supporting surface that required an unsuitable and often dangerous amount of critical time and effort. A medical staff member needed to grasp the wearer or patient and often struggle (especially if the patient was heavy and the staff member physically small) to lift the patient and then push the board into position. No suitable mechanical aids were available to assist the staff member in this difficult lifting and positioning process. Various harness devices exist for restraining or moving a person, but these prior art devices require ready access to the wearer's back region for fitting and usually demand the wearer's arms fit through small opening, neither of which are practical for a critically ill and possibly heavy wearer or patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,050,257 relates an elastic shoulder brace.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,310,958, 1,711,864, 1,816,262, 2,102,281, 2,212,746, 2,568,304, 2,758,769, 4,308,629, 4,666,017, 4,667,624, and 4,759,311 all disclose harnesses used with children for safety or restraining purposes.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,062,586, 4,655,207, and 3,669,107 present devices employed in restraining individuals.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,900,976, 3,458,878, 3,884,225, 3,889,668, 4,396,013, 4,569,095, 4,641,642, 4,675,925, and 4,793,008 all disclose medically related devices for moving, aiding, or securing patients.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,812,123, 2,956,541, and 4,273,215 describe and claim sports related harnesses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,941 discloses a safety belt with multiple latches.
U.S. Ser. No. 07/821,476, by the subject inventor, comprises a method of moving the upper body of a patient for inserting a chest board before employing electric heart stimulation. The device utilizes a single chest belt having a shoulder strap and associated handle.
Copending patent application Ser. No. 07/874,115, by the subject inventor, discloses an upper body harness for moving an individual. The device comprises an upper body belt with side handles a and a shoulder strap with an associated handle.